The transportation of goods, equipment, or materials is often conducted or facilitated by stacking or otherwise placing the items on a pallet for loading and subsequent unloading to and from transportation vehicles, including, for example, trucks, trains, planes, helicopters, etc. In particular, and for exemplary purposes only, the United States military branches and/or organizations such as the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Administration, and other Department of Defense organizations, as well as those operated or existing in foreign or non-U.S. countries, oftentimes use a standard size pallet such as a 463-L Pallet and/or HCU-6/E Pallet, although others may be used. In addition, container or shipping units, such as ISU container (“Internal Airlift/Helicopter Slingable Container Units”) may be used to transport goods, equipment, or other materials. As an example, some shipping container unit are known as ISU-90 or ISU-60 units, although others exist and can be used within the scope of this application.
In any event, a number of inefficiencies and problems exist in the currently used manner of transporting traditional containers to and from the pallets or shipping units, and loading, stacking or unloading materials or items on or from the pallets or shipping units. For example, in the military environment, military personnel are often tasked with loading containers or boxes with equipment, clothing, materials, etc. and bringing those containers or boxes to the pallet or shipping unit. The containers or boxes are oftentimes extremely heavy, bulky and difficult to transport, especially over unfinished surfaces (such as gravel, sand, grass, etc.) commonly present in the military environments.
Moreover, the containers or boxes, which are generally of a non-uniform shape and size, are then loaded onto the pallet or into the shipping unit—a time-consuming and extremely labor intensive task. For example, loading the traditional containers or boxes onto the pallet or into the shipping unit may require guesswork and/or trial-and-error in order to position or orient the traditional containers to fit in an optimum manner, position or orientation. Once loaded, the non-uniform shape and size of the containers or boxes create an excessive amount of wasted space between the items or containers. Finally, a packed pallet or shipping unit can oftentimes be unsteady and can collapse before, during or after shipment creating a dangerous situation and environment for crew and passengers of the vessel, ship or other vehicle used for transportation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a stacking and/or interlocking container for use in connection with the transportation of equipment, materials, items, etc. via a pallet, including, but not limited to the 463-L Pallet or ISU-90 shipping unit. The proposed container(s) may include enlarged wheels and a handle assembly for easy transportation along unfinished or uneven surfaces (e.g., gravel, sand, grass, etc.) and can be sized to fit neatly on the pallet with minimal or no wasted space in between. The proposed containers may be easily and intuitively stacked via interlocking and/or abutting portions therein and are configured such that a person need not guess as to which direction or orientation the containers can be stacked or interlocked with one another. For instance, it is visually clear that the wheels of one container fit within corresponding wheel receiving portions of another container.
Further, certain embodiments of the proposed containers of the present invention may include interlocking members, such as positive and negative shapes, cast onto the outer surfaces thereof, allowing adjacent or stacked containers to be interlocked with one another. The interlocking and/or abutting capabilities restricts or prevents movement, shifting and ultimate collapse of the containers, for example, before, during or after transportation of the pallet.